


Fractured Fantasies

by PerplexingAstronomina



Category: Final Fantasy
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-17 11:38:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerplexingAstronomina/pseuds/PerplexingAstronomina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brandon and Brian...these two heroes have stumbled upon a grand find; the entire Final Fantasy collection! The two aim to play every single game made to date, but when things start going arwy, it's up to them to see what's going wrong and uncover the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. When Good Heists Go Bad

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is a fanfic, which is a piece of literature based on an already established work. This means I am not making any profit off of this, nor am I being paid to write this story for anyone. All characters not created by me are property of Square-Enix.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teenagers Brandon and Brian are spending a calm day in the city of Arcadia looking for some games to occupy them after the disappearance of their rogues gallery, the Villain's Alliance. Brian soon comes across a surprise; all of the Final Fantasy games (excluding titles like Tactics and Crystal Chronicles) in a box, together! However, the owner of said collection isn't willing to give it up so easily, especially when a few vicious nerds come knocking...

## THE PROLOGUE: Fire Sale Fantasy

### PART 1: When Good Heists Go Bad

It was another slow business day at the old game store known as Keith's Game Replay. People seldom came in anymore, even though the place had a treasure trove of vintage games at the public's disposal. The eponymous owner of the store, Keith Dallas, was dutifully reading a newspaper he often got on Sundays. The headline for that day was detailing the disappearance of an organization called the Villain's Alliance, whom nobody had seen since March, but their disappearance was very welcome and nobody made any real effort to look for them.

A teenager was sitting in the middle of the store, his head practically buried in a cardboard box he was rifling through. Game cases were being tossed around haphazardly, possibly damaging the games further if they weren't already. Keith looked over at the near-adult with annoyance; if there was anything he hated more than having his games busted up, it was having someone throw them around and presenting a risk to other potential customers and himself.

He sighed. "Kids these days are troublesome to the nth degree..." Keith said. Almost as if on cue, he was smacked upside the head by a laserburnt copy of  _Bubsy 3D_. "CONFOUND IT, BRANDON! Will you stop digging through games like you're in a hurry!?" Keith shouted in frustration.

The teen known as Brandon stopped in the middle of his game search binge and looked at the owner, who had a visible knot on the side of his head. He was, understandably, seething with anger. His sheepish expression said it all.

"Um...sorry about that, Keith. Just looking through these games, and all I've found so far are low end titles and broken discs." Brandon said apologetically.

"Well, forgive me if I don't enjoy having nickel-budget disc-based contrabrand tossed at my head. If you want games that don't belong in a bargain bin-"

"Or turns out to be yet another sequel to War World..." Brandon cut in.

"...Or turns out to be yet another sequel to War World, yes," Keith continued upon Brandon's words, "blame LameStop for forcing this crap on me. It was not my fault someone destroyed their stock of games...most of which were quality titles. Whose fault was that again?" Keith said, cocking an eyebrow at Brandon.

"Um...mine?" Brandon hadn't forgotten about that raid, but in hindsight he wish he hadn't gone through with it.

"Exactly," Keith picked back up, then said, "So next time people come to my store, I'll make sure to let them know that the 'Hero of Arcadia' is to blame for making LameStop worse than usual," Keith said before returning to reading his Sunday funnies.

Brandon sighed in exasperation. "And people wonder why I hate to screw up," he said before attempting to sift through the bin again.

Yes, it was shaping up to be the typical calm Arcadian day. Nothing was looking to go wrong today!

As Brandon was about to continue his searching for a good game to play, the door to the storage room burst open. Another teen came out holding another cardboard box in his hands.

"Hey, Brandon!" the bespectacled teen said.

"Morning, Brian. I see you've been trawling around in the back," Brandon said, hardly looking up.

"As usual," Brian replied. "But you gotta check this out!" He set his cardboard box down on the floor next to Brandon and the bargain bin.

"Oh joy. More bargain stuffers," Brandon thought to himself. He averted his attention from the bargain bin to Brian's newfound box, and when he eyes met the inside of the box, he was not at all disappointed. In fact, he was pleasantly surprised.

Sitting inside the box was a bunch of Final Fantasy games. Not just one, not even three or five. Every game that pertained to the main series was in there!

"Wha... Where in the world did you find these, Brian?! I've been looking for a chance to play these games for a while!" Brandon said, dumbstruck. You see, Brandon had just recently gotten into the Final Fantasy series, so you can probably imagine his excitement.

"It wasn't hard, really. I was looking around in the back room and ended up finding a pretty well hidden trapdoor containing this box." Brian said.

"Clearly, it must not have been 'well hidden' enough if you were able to find it," Brandon said, laying the deadpan on thick.

Keith, overhearing the conversation, appeared shocked and angered as his fists clenched around his newspaper. Apparently a chord had been struck this time.

"You...found...WHAT now...?" Keith said, trying to modulate his anger.

Brian feigned surprise, but Brandon was genuinely shocked; never in all the times had he annoyed or frustrated Keith that he had seen him so  **threateningly angered**.

"I found your box full of Final Fantasy games in the storage room..." Brian said slowly, but calmly.

"...We're in trouble, aren't we?" Brandon uncertainly answered. Last time Keith managed to get almost to his breaking point and threatened to have Brandon's ass for dinner if he didn't quit vandalizing various Activeware Arts merchandise (even though he didn't enjoy the company either). Brandon almost thought he was being literal before coming to the conclusion that he was going to have his shorts put into a cast mold and hung on Keith's wall like a hunting trophy. That or he was merely 'joking'.

However, Keith had gotten better with his anger in recent years and took a little bit of time out to calm himself before rejoining the boys.

"...No, I suppose you're not. Still, I have to even wonder how you'd found them or why..." Keith said, modulating himself.

"Blame Brian for that," Brandon said sarcastically.

Ignoring Brandon's remark, Keith continued. "But I've owned a played a lot of those games since I was a child myself. The countless hours I spent on leveling my characters up, blasting through baddies and bosses, finding every last item in the game, and the Gold Saucer...man, I've forgotten how many hours I've logged into that place," Keith said, reminiscing about the good old days.

"But, I want to make something clear here: these games are NOT for sale, okay? They hold a lot of value to me. If you're looking to buy them, I'm afraid you'll have to look else-"

Keith was interrupted by the door to his shop crashing open. In walked in a nerdy looking young man with warts plastered all over his face. His swirly glasses were partially broken and his fly was undone, leaving his underwear on display for everyone unfortunate enough to cross his path to see.

"'Sup, bitches? And yo, Keith! How's it hanging my brother?" the nerd spoke (unsuccessfully) in ebonics.

"Oh, great." Keith groaned.

Every city had its fair share of nerds going for it. Some of them were closet nerds, some were more open, and some were lifestylers. However, nobody quire presided over all of the nerds known to man than this one.

His name was Whiz Kid. And he was looking to raid Keith's Game Replay.

* * *

As far as everyone on the planet of Imaginationland knows, they can hardly ever catch a break from the going-ons in the never-ending adventures of the Arcadian Defenders. Wherever you looked, there was almost always something going to happen  _somewhere_. And more often than not, most of the time the problems that arose in the world usually got Brandon involved, to the point that some people would end up getting tired of him entirely. Of course, they were something of a vocal (read:  _ **very**_  vocal) minority, so it probably didn't matter to everyone else anyways.

In the months following the disappearance of the Villain's Alliance the planet had seen something of a great peace. No militia raids or rampaging robots, no deadly shadows, no alien invasions, and certainly no 'Burnin' Dancin' competitions' held by one of the villains. Everyone was happy to see that the hectic lifestyle they lead had abandoned them. At least, they were hoping it would abandon them for good this time and not come back in a couple of months.

The stick-up in Keith's Game Replay was just another strange day on the job, but it gave no hint as to what lay ahead for all parties involved. Whiz Kid was looking to wring Keith's stock dry just so he could one day hope to become the world's biggest nerd. Pretty small beans compared to what the Villain's Alliance could do on their best days.

"So, good to see you again, Keith!" Whiz Kid said mock jovially.

"Not likewise..." Keith said, clearly annoyed.

"How's business going, eh? Brandon still giving you a hard time?" Whiz Kid egged on.

"Don't start with me, Retainer Boy. Just get whatever you might of come here for and get out." Keith said. This had become something of a regular occurrence for him, so he stopped trying to make Whiz Kid concede after the forty-seventh time Whiz Kid raided the place.

"Letting me make off with your stock once again, huh? Heh, your loss." Whiz Kid taunted. "All right then...let's see what we've got here..."

Whiz Kid's eyes darted around the room, looking at Keith's wares like a vulture. He didn't seem to see anything worthy of note for a few moments...until his eyes targeted the cardboard box full of Final Fantasy games.

"OH...MY...GOD! Is that..." Whiz Kid said, almost as awestruck as Brandon was minutes ago. He wiped his cracked glasses to make sure he was looking at this correctly. Upon clearer vision...

"IT IS! Every single Final Fantasy game in the main series!" Whiz Kid shouted excitedly as he darted over to the box. "Oh my god... This is amazing! I've found them all right here, in a simple cardboard box!" he continued. Keith was startled; he kept that stash secret for a reason, and now he was about to lose it to the biggest geek on the planet.

"Look, Kid, I know what you're thinking... You're not taking that box with you," Keith said, his tone deadly serious. "I  _will_  fight you for it if it comes down to it."

"Big deal, old man! What matters now is the fact that I've found the collection I have clamored for! Hell, crack would probably be cheaper than how much they charge for it out on the market right now! But to find it here...it's been my dream to own all of the games in that series! And it's  _mine!_ _ **ALL MI-**_ "

In the middle of his triumphant pose, he finally saw Brandon and Brian sitting at opposite sides of the box, who had been wearing blank, deadpan expressions the entire time Whiz Kid was fangasming over the Final Fantasy Collection. He stopped dead, realizing who he was looking at.

"Uh...h-hi, Brandon! Brian! My brothers from other mothers! How it hanging, G's?" Whiz Kid attempted to diffuse the situation in his usual ebonics.

It didn't help. "Hey, Brandon...do you wanna trash this nerd real quick so we can get on with our lives?" Brian spoke up after a moment of silence.

"Anything to get him to bug off," Brandon nonchalantly replied. The two got up and prepared to punch Whiz Kid's lights out.

Whiz Kid looked about ready to piss himself. He reached back into his coat and...pulled out a walkie talkie.

"I NEED ASSISTANCE NOW, GUYS!" he screamed into the talkie.

The two boys backed up a fair bit, knowing what was next. Rumbling could be heard in the distance, followed by the sound of bricks and concrete being smashed to smithereens and glass shattering by force. A moment later, a small fortress on wheels came barreling to a stop, crashing through the entrance of the store. It was equipped with a couple of extra shields and a cannon on the sides. A battering ram was seen connected to the inside of the fortress. On top of the fortress were two other nerds; one fat and the other one skinny. The two of them were Whiz Kid's cronies, no doubt.

"Now, face the wrath of NERD RAGE with my Nerd Fortress of Solitude!" Whiz Kid said as he ducked inside of the mobile fortress and ran to the top.

Keith was in a daze before shaking out of it and registering that he, his business, and his Final Fantasy collection were in danger. He then looked at the two boys in concern.

"I know it's a rare occurrence for me to ask someone for help...but Whizzy's got us all pinned down right now... I've owned this business for years now, and as troublesome as you've been to me, I don't want to lose all that I've worked for and accomplished with this business. So I want you two to show these punks the old one-two and teach them a lesson for bulling others into giving up their rare games!" Keith pleaded. "I'll offer whatever help I can give you!" Keith dove behind the counter as the nerds initiated combat with Brandon and Brian.

"Look on the bright side, at least it's not Xana attacking the city this time!" Brian said, hardly worried about the conflict.

"Doesn't mean we can't be concerned for the well-being of smaller places, Brian! Let's roll!" Brandon said, pulling out one of his many swords. The fight for Keith's store was on!

**[BOSS: Whiz Kid's Nerd Fortress of Solitude]**

"All right, boys! Let's show them what happens when a nerd is pushed over the edge. ARE YOU WITH ME?!" Whiz Kid shouted. The two anonymous dorks responded with some ugly cheering as the battle got underway.

Brandon leapt forward and smacked the fortress with a simple sword blow, doing a small amount of damage, with Brian doing much the same immediately afterward. The damage was minimal, and the nerds responded in kind...by running the two over. About 700 damage went out the boys' health count on the attack's conclusion.

"Oh...that smarts..." Brandon said as he got to his feet.

"I don't gotta worry about it," Brian said, apparently unopposed.

"For a week. Then you'll be screaming," Brandon retorted.

"Oh...right," Brian remembered.

Brandon pulled out a pistol and fired three shots into the fortress doing a little bit of damage each shot. Then Brian rushed forward and struck it with several blows with two of his katanas out, dealing moderate damage.

"Hit them with the battering ram!" Whiz Kid ordered. The two nerdy grunts complied and readied the battering ram. It shot forward on a chain and nailed Brandon, knocking him backwards out of the battle for a moment.

Brian used the moment to deal damage to the fortress, hacking it repeatedly and doing quite a bit of damage. He also took the opportunity to slice through the chain and preventing the battering ram from coming under any further usage.

By the time Brian finished with that, Brandon had recovered.

"You alright, Brandon?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Brandon replied. "Let's finish this thing off quickly."

The two decided to do a duel attack next. They dashed forward, slashed at the fortress in a wild pattern, and then Brandon springboarded Brian up to the top level to nail the nerds for double the damage.

"Whew. Nice teamwork there!" Brandon said to Brian.

The nerds were looking at a pretty one-sided battle now. "This isn't working... What will it take to stop these two bozos?" Whiz Kid pondered.

"Uh, boss? We haven't fired the cannon yet..." Fatty said.

Whiz Kid's mind clicked upon the cannon's mention. "Oh, duh!" He slapped himself on the forehead. "I could have been using that the entire fight and we'd have won! CHARGE THE MAIN CANNON, MY SLAVES!" Whiz Kid commanded. The cannon attached to the fortress surged with energy and began charging.

"Uh oh," Brandon said. "Cannon's charging. It's gonna hurt us badly if we don't destroy this thing quickly!"

"No shit!" Brian replied. The two made quite an effort in trying to prevent the cannon from charging, dishing out damage and abandoning the turn system they were going by for the first half of the fight. Unfortunately for them, despite their best efforts the cannon managed to charge up completely.

"Cannon is charged completely, sir!" Twiggy said.

"Good! Fire at will!" Whiz Kid said.

The cannon unleashed a concentrated ball of energy at the duo, who were both caught up in the blast. 4000 damage was shaved off the two's health bars, leaving them holding on to the rest of it.

"Charge the cannon again, boys! I wanna see these two squirm!" Whiz Kid said with a perverse delight.

The two said nothing and tried to hit the fortress to the best of their abilities, but the nerds had gotten privy to Brandon and Brian's pressure attacks. They started wheeling out of the store and made every effort to subdue the two while the cannon charged up. The nerds kept tossing heavy objects at the boys and faking them out with feint charges. Although the two managed to hit the fortress a few times, the cannon had reached full charge a second time.

"Charge achieved yet again, boss!" Fatty shouted.

"BLOW THEM TO KINGDOM COME!" Whiz Kid cackled. The cannon shot another payload of energy straight at the two, nailing them again with a large blast. That second blast winded Brandon and caused Brian to take a knee. They were about to die.

"Shit... These guys have gotten better since we last saw them..." Brandon breathlessly said.

"I know...but I can't believe were about to lose to a couple of nerds..." Brian muttered.

"Are you two finished yet? Or are you waiting for that hack Keith to come save your butts?" Whiz Kid said. "Well, the truth is, he ain't. He's too scared to die and lose his business...but once we're finished with you, we'll just go on ahead and take what we came fore, hook, line and sinker! Charge that cannon one more time, boys!" Whiz Kid shouted yet again.

The cannon charged rapidly this time, looking to blow the two teens apart at last. In their current state, they wouldn't make it out of another blast in one piece.

"Well...guess this is it..." Brandon said. "Nice knowing you, Brian."

"...Hey, wait a minute, whatever happened to Keith? He said he'd help us!" Brian recalled. Indeed, Keith had vanished as the battle got underway, and he hadn't appeared since then.

"We're about to die, and you're concerned about that? I don't think he's coming back to-"

"Save your sorry hides?" a familiar voice rang out.

Everyone looked towards the source of the voice and, sure enough, there Keith stood decked out in a full body armor and armed to the teeth with weapons. "Don't worry, boys. I'll take it all from here now," Keith said.

"But...I thought you had..." Brandon attempted to say.

"Nah, it's my fault." Keith said. "I should have had him arrested a long time ago. His obsession with games has gone on long enough, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he managed to kill you two. Other potential customers have probably fallen to him, but I'm going to help end that tonight."

Keith pulled a grenade from his vest and got into a pitcher's stance, pulling the pin and getting ready to flick the lever.

"No...Keith... Don't do it!" Brandon tried to shout, but he couldn't summon the strength to do so. If Keith had heard him, he probably wouldn't have heard him anyways, or would have been ignored.

The cannon had almost just finished charging. Keith knew he had one shot at this, and needed to do this quickly. He flicked the lever up and tossed the grenade at the fortress. The grenade sailed into the cannon and landed inside as it was still charging.

Perfect.

"Heh. That's gotta be a waste! Fire the cannon!" Whiz Kid said. Big mistake. The cannon prepared to fire, but the grenade managed to beat it by a second and detonated inside the cannon. The built-up energy within the cannon made the ensuing explosion bigger, almost assuredly obliterating the fortress and sending the nerds flying from the top of it.

Keith stood in front of the explosion stoically as the three nerds landed at his feet. The three looked up to see the game store owner menacingly glowering at them. "Oh...oh dear..." Whiz Kid squeaked. Keith wasted no time. He grabbed up Whiz Kid by his coat and threatened him.

"Now, I'm going to make this clear one more time. If I ever... **ever**  see you again around my shop or harassing people for their games, you will only be hurting yourself. I won't kill you and your friends there, but if step out of line again, you are going to go to jail. Got it?" Keith said, not missing a beat. The three terrified boys nodded frantically in unison, and were then dropped on the asphalt. Keith turned back towards Brandon and Brian and made sure they were okay.

"Are you two alright? You took quite a lickin' out there." Keith asked the two.

"I'm alright, but I don't know about Brandon." Brian said in response.

"No, no, I'm fine too..." Brandon said, trying to regain his bearings.

Keith sighed in relief. "Good... I'm sorry I couldn't come out sooner. Preparation definitely sucks," Keith chuckled.

"That's alright... What matters is that you saved us... Thank you, Keith..." Brandon said weakly.

"No need to thank me for anything, boys. Come on, let's get you to the hospital." Keith said as he moved to pick the boys up. He got Brian to his feet, then went to get Brandon.

As Brandon was pulled up by Keith, he tried to get out of his dizzy spell. His vision was blurry, but he could make out three figures. They seemed to be doubles of Keith, but as his vision cleared...

"KEITH, LOOK OUT!" Brandon cried.

Keith turned around too late to find the three nerds nailing him with spare debris from their destroyed fortress.

"You should have let us take your 'pot of gold', old man. Now it's time for your payment." Then they took the opportunity to beat the boys with the same debris. Keith, Brandon, and Brian were being beaten down by nerds of all people. Nerds that were complete and total megalomaniacs and clamored to become the biggest nerds of all time through any means possible, but that's beside the point. Unable to defend themselves at this point, the three couldn't do much else except take the beating full force.

However, the nerds had not considered that there would be witnesses to the fight. An adult man, along with a few other people had phoned in the police and were waiting desperately for them to arrive. The fight had been reduced to nothing more than assault and battery with broken stone and concrete, and the nerds showed little sign of stopping.

A couple of minutes later, the police had pulled into Amityville Street. The nerds heard the sirens coming and dropped their pieces.

"Oh crap! It's the cops!" Fatty said.

"We need to run!" Whiz Kid said. The three began to run, as Brandon began to recover. He saw the three bespectacled bastards running for the hills as he rose.

"Oh no you don't, you creeps... You won't get away this time..." Brandon said. He picked up a good size chunk of debris and whirled his arm around continuously, building up momentum, speed, and power for the throw. A few seconds later, Brandon tossed the chunk of debris at the three nerds running away, in a straight line. Like clockwork, the debris hit Fatty on the head and sent him crashing to the street...right on top of his colleagues!

Shouts of pain were heard after the impact. The nerds had been downed. The cops blocked off the other end of the street in front of the nerds to ensure there was no escape. The battle was over.

* * *

Brian had gotten back up and was checking Keith's pulse. Brandon ran over to the two and knelt beside his friend.

"Is he still alive?" Brandon asked Brian worriedly.

"Don't worry. He's still got a pulse, but his head injury's bad. I'm amazed he's still alive after that." Brian was right. Arcadian civilians were nowhere near as durable as Brandon and Brian were, but Keith was a hardy old battleaxe. For a game shop owner, he could definitely take a hit or two.

Brandon was relieved, but he knew it wasn't over yet. "Brian, call an ambulance. Tell them Keith needs his head checked." Brandon told Brian.

"Understood." Brian got up and began to walk to the police, but then stopped when he remembered something. "Couldn't we call Xavier? He'd probably be able to do better than the hospital doctors." Brian said.

"Xavier's on leave time with the others, remember? He said they'd be back by Monday." Brandon said.

"Right... I'll get an ambulance." Brian fished his cell phone out of his pocket and called up an ambulance.

Ten minutes later, the nerds had been cuffed and the ambulance arrived to take Keith to the hospital. Brandon watched as Keith was put on the stretcher and hauled to the ambulance with a somber expression on his face. As he turned to leave the scene, Keith had regained consciousness.

"Wait, guys..." he told the paramedics. "Give me a moment." The paramedics were stern about wasting precocious time that could be used right now to help him get better, but Keith eventually got them to concede and wait for a moment. Keith had some business to attend to.

"Brandon...come here..." Keith said, still rather dazed. Brandon walked over to him, still concerned for his well-being.

"I-I'm sorry, Keith... About all of this." Brandon apologized.

"There's no need to apologize, Brandon. You didn't instigate the fight. Hell...you've done me a service." Keith said.

"Well...I wouldn't say that..." Brandon said, flattered but not completely accepting the compliment. "But...is there anything I can do to repay you after this?" Brandon asked.

"...Nah." Keith shook his head slowly. "I'd say you've went through enough trouble this evening as it is." He was silent for a moment, deep in thought, before he spoke again. "In fact...I think you need  _some_  kind of reward." He whistled to one of the paramedics. "You, go into my store real quick and grab one of those cardboard boxes full of games." The paramedic agreed and ran towards the store. Keith quickly added "Not the one full of bargain stuffers!" as the paramedic drew closer to the store. He wasn't sure if he got the message.

"Um...what are you doing?" Brandon asked Keith, but he didn't answer.

The paramedic brought out the cardboard box. Brandon looked in it...and promptly looked unimpressed.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" Brandon said. Keith looked as confused as Brandon did as he looked into the box...to find that the paramedic had grabbed the wrong one.

"ARE YOU SHITTING ME?! You grabbed the wrong one!" Keith shouted. He lost control of his emotions for a moment, but regained composure. "Fine...I'll grab the thing myself..." Keith said as he rolled off the stretcher.

"Sir, you really shouldn't be..." the paramedic said.

"Don't tell me what I can or can't do, son. I know I'm injured but I don't give a rat's tail at this point. Now I'm gonna give this young man a reward, and if you don't like it you can kiss my war-scarred ass, buster," Keith told off the paramedic in classic grizzled old man fashion. The paramedic said nothing else, sitting there in stunned silence.

Brandon tried supporting Keith all the way into the store, but Keith kept rejecting the help, telling Brandon that he's done enough for the day. They walked towards the remaining box in the wrecked store and both of them knelt in front of it.

"So...what's the deal, Keith? Why all the trouble of doing this?" Brandon said, though he figured he knew the answer anyways.

"I know you've been causing me some level of grief sometimes...but I don't think you've ever saved my store, let alone my ass." He chuckled for a moment. "So...I'm gonna go ahead and give you my prized jewel of my collection...the Final Fantasy games I've played..." Keith said, pushing the box towards Brandon.

"Oh...well...I couldn't take this, Keith... It's an integral part of your childhood... I can't take that away from you..." Brandon said, as he pushed the box back towards Keith.

"Brandon...you don't have to question a gift. You don't have to accept it either...but look back on our history...I've sold you games you wanted for cheap prices, some of them mint condition too... I've repaired your consoles when they were broken down or reading errors on the discs. Hell, I saved you the trouble of shelling out some cash for consoles you had not yet owned and let you have some for free!" The old man went quiet for a moment and smiled softly before speaking again.

"I suppose you and Brian's battle with the nerds is payback for me...which is why I'm giving you my Final Fantasy games." He started to tear up, but tried to choke back the tears. "I had many great adventures playing these games, Brandon. Parting with them will be difficult for me to do...but they haven't been played in years. I think they'll get more mileage out of you anyhow. Plus, you've been talking about Final Fantasy for some time now, so...I think you'll be pleased."

Brandon looked a bit guilty being offered something someone had treasured for years, but he figured Keith wasn't gonna say no, so he decided to take what he was offered with.

"Thank you, Keith... I'll take good care of them." Brandon said.

"You need to, Brandon. These games were my life. I enjoyed them whenever I could...whenever I could find the time. You take care when you're playing these games, Brandon. Don't make any stupid mistakes, level up when you can, and stay positive about things, no matter what transpires on those adventures," said Keith, his tone dead serious.

Brandon was weirded out. Keith was speaking as if he had really been there. "Ooookay... You need to get to the hospital...but thank you for giving me these games. I hope you feel better soon." Brandon said. Keith still refused to be helped to the stretcher, but he ended up making it just fine. Seven minutes with brain trauma didn't seem to affect him too much, but the paramedics made sure the got him to the hospital okay.

After the nerds were taken into custody and Keith was on his way to the hospital, the scene eventually dispersed, leaving Brandon and Brian standing in the middle of a ruined Amityville Street, holding a box full of the Final Fantasy games.

"So...he gave you the games after all, huh?" Brian said, sitting on the curb with Brandon.

"Yep. He said for me to take care of them. I certainly hope he knows I'm not the most responsible person around." Brandon said, again uncertain.

"I wouldn't worry. We're gonna have fun tomorrow morning, alright? We'll play the games one after the other, Keith will recover, and all will be well! And you gotta remember, Xavier's returning tomorrow, so that's another plus, eh?" Brian said, trying to keep Brandon upbeat about everything.

"Right...right..." Brandon said. He cracked a small smile looking into the box again.

Indeed, while today was something of an intense battle, they would put it behind them and look forward to tomorrow.

Tomorrow wouldn't bring forward a true wave of sunshine and daisies. The real adventure was about to begin the very next day...

* * *

**PROLOGUE TO BE CONCLUDED IN THE PROLOGUE'S FINALE...**

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I know this is a bait-and-switch for those who were expecting the series to begin right at the games, but bear with me on this one. The Prologue won't last very long and it will only be set in Imaginationland for the Prologue's finale and the intermission succeeding it. After that, the only time you'll see Imaginationland will be during intermissions between the games and a few bit parts in-between the action, and you'll be seeing the game worlds instead.
> 
> Aside from that, I hope you enjoy this fanfic. Feel free to post your thoughts if you wish!


	2. A Glitch in the System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a brutal battle against a trio of fanatical nerds the day prior, Brandon and Brian have obtained Keith's Final Fantasy collection. They plan on playing all of the games non-stop today, but when things don't go quite as expected, it looks like those ideas are going to have to be put on hold...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See first half of the prologue.

## THE PROLOGUE: Fire Sale Fantasy

### CHAPTER FINALE: A Glitch in the System

Last night was something of an eventful night for Brandon and Brian, the most eventful it's been since the Villain's Alliance vanished in March. It wasn't a large scale assault on the city, or some secret project deep underground, or even something outlandish like some sort of crazy chicken suit disco-loving alien invasion (now THAT was a strange incident); it was just an attempted, and failed stick-up at a game store which eventually degraded into assault and battery and ended with the arrest of Whiz Kid, Fatty and Twiggy. The two and Keith, the store's owner, had been greatly injured but had survived the fight nonetheless.

In recognition to Brandon and Brian's heroic deed, Keith bestowed upon Brandon his prized possession: his collection of Final Fantasy games he had been playing since he was a child. After a lengthy talk between the two, Keith was soon sent on his way to get treatment for his injuries, and Brandon was left with a bunch of Final Fantasy games in his possession. Having dealt with enough for the night, the two boys returned to their homes to await tomorrow and all that it would hold, because that would be the day they would begin playing every single Final Fantasy game nonstop. It was also the day Brandon's friends would return from their leave time, including Xavier, who had returned to Big Science Mountain to visit his massive family for the weekend.

It all seemed so simple, one could wonder: what could possibly go wrong?

The mathematician's answer?  _ **EVERYTHING!**_

Compared to some other nights Brandon slept, his sleep was not at all riddled with nightmares from his more violent adventures, even despite the fact that he and his friends had been nearly beaten to death the night before by a trio of band geeks. Though in hindsight being beaten to death by nerds wielding broken building matter was much less terrifying than what he went through.

His sleep was only disturbed when he was shaken awake by someone. Slowly opening his eyes and still quite drowsy, Brandon awoke to Brian.

"Oh...morning, Brian..." Brandon said, a slight tone of annoyance at being awoken so abruptly. "I take it you've got a reason to be here right now? Or are you just here for the convenience of trying to jump scare me?"

"Uh...not this time. I had to wake you up though. Everyone's returning to Arcadia today, so I'm going to run out to the airport to pick them up. Are you wanting to come with me, or do you wanna stay here?" Brian asked Brandon.

Brandon groaned sleepily. "I'll...stay here...right now. You'll be back...soon anyways..." Brandon mumbled before he drifted back off into Dreamland.

Brian rolled his eyes before he took off for the airport. Some time later, Brandon finally awoke, now sufficiently rested. He yawned and looked around his room for a moment before getting up and getting dressed and going downstairs.

Brandon had to admit, not having villains breathing down your neck every few days was a breath of fresh air compared to most of the things they pulled otherwise. It seemed almost unnatural...well, aside from the lesser villains, but that was something Brandon would worry about whenever they managed to either escape from prison or gain parole somehow.

With everyone gone for the time being, Brandon wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He thought about doing a movie review, but then he remembered that he had an crossover with Bob's own review show, so that plan was shot. He also wanted to test a few new experimental weapons with Xavier and Walter, but of course that was also rendered moot because they were out too.

He was also wondering why the hell he was relaying this information again when the audience, and he himself, was already made aware/knew of this information in the previous chapter, but he certainly didn't feel like taking a sledgehammer to the fourth wall either. Well, not yet anyway.

Looking at his options at that moment, he had little to do. Now he wished he had went with Brian to see his friends return.

"Lazy is as lazy does, I guess," Brandon said to himself. He scanned the room for something of interest to do. The computer, the television, the box full of games he just-

...The box. Of course! He and Brian had wanted to play the games in a marathon last night, but seeing as he wasn't present at the moment... Brandon decided to give it a few minutes and wait for Brian to return so they could play. He waited...and waited...and waited...

Forty-five minutes later, Brandon was bored as hell.

"What's the hold up? Why's Brian taking so long? He should have been back by now..." Brandon wondered as he lay on the couch. "At least I hope he's having more fun than me right about now," he concluded.

* * *

Brian was  **not**  having a good day. Right from the starting gate his car had trouble starting up. Then his fuel injector blew out and had taken him a while.  _Then_  while he was fixing the fuel injector, his security system bugged out and locked him in his garage.  _ **Then**_  when he finally got out of his house, a sudden accident held him up from the airport for a good long while.  _ **THEN**_ , when the traffic cleared up, his car went MACH SPEED and sped all across the world (yes, even through the ocean) before stopping him at the outskirts of the city and ejected him through the windshield, sending him flying a good thirty feet and skidding across the road for another twenty.  _ **AND THEN**_...well, you get the idea.

Picking himself back up and dusting himself off, he thought, "Here I thought this was going to be smooth sailing...guess not." After that thought, he ended up getting blindsided by a car and fell to the road yet again.

Getting back up, he shouted at the driver, "HEY, I'M STANDING RIGHT HERE!" Brian shook his head, questioning the safety standards of drivers today and got back into his car.

"What else could today possibly throw at me?" he inquired as he started back down the road...before being struck by a meteor out of nowhere.

"...Okay...I asked for that," Brian groaned from under the still smoldering space rock.

* * *

Brandon only had so much patience. It had been nearly an hour since Brian departed to head for the airport, and by now he should have been back. Looking at the games yet again, he thought "...Oh, what the hell? I don't think he'll mind all that much if I start a new game while he's out..."

So Brandon decided to not wait any longer. He reached in and pulled out the familiar cartridge: the one that started it all. The shelf that held his television on its top was loaded with gaming consoles both new and old, most of them coming from Keith's Game Replay. He hoped the old geezer was alright.

He finally found the familiar old grey box after some searching. The Nintendo Entertainment System he owned had gotten rather dusty in recent times, but it was still pretty maintained, even through disuse and impacts with the floor. Brandon pushed up its lid and slid the cart into the slot. He pushed it down into it and shut the lid before turning the game on. The intro booted up, and these words appeared against the blue screen:

" _The world is veiled in darkness. The wind has grown stale and stopped, the sea has grown violent and wild, the earth begins to rot and erode into nothingness, and the fire has begun to grow beyond human control. The people of this world have only but one sliver of hope to look at, and it comes in the form of an age-old prophecy..._

_'When the world has been consumed by darkness, the chosen warriors will come and vanquish the dark evil...'_

_Years passed. After a long, long time, four warriors come forth, each of them holding an ORB..."_

Two options popped up, one to CONTINUE, or one for a NEW GAME. Brandon selected the new game and saw four beings. Each one was under some kind of class. One was a fighter, one was a thief, another was a red wizard, and the last was a black belt. Brandon thought long and hard about what he wanted to go with and what names he'd give these characters. Eventually, he settled on a fighter (who he didn't name in paticular), a black mage he called Gene, a white mage he called Lyra, and a black belt called Lars.

Finally, he got the game booted up once he made his party...and was met with the overworld immediately. Brandon was understandably confused as to what he had to do. He moved the characters into the castle and spoke to the king, who said:

" _LIGHT WARRIORS... Lukhan's Prophecy has come to fruition. Garland currently has the princess in his grasp! Please, you must save her!"_

"Straight and to the point. Alright, so far, so good." Brandon said as he left the throne room and castle.

He looked to go and stomp Garland into the ground pretty early in the game, which is not wise, given that the party is extremely weak at this point. Plus, Brandon had no idea that the buildings at the sides of the castle was Cornelia Town, so he ran off to do battle with Garland. As he encountered the evil knight, Garland said:

" _No one touches my Princess! You impertinent fools! I, Garland, will knock you all down!"_

Brandon stared at the game in confusion. "...'Knock you all down'? Really? The translators must have been pretty baked to avoid saying 'die'," Brandon said to himself. "But, you know, kiddies and all that," Brandon sarcastically added.

The party went into battle...and promptly got their asses kicked by Garland.

"No-hoh...damn!" Brandon cursed. He tried again, this time having a red mage named Aron and a thief named Zack along with the white mage and fighter. Again, Brandon made the exact same mistakes...except who did he lose to this time? Some lowly imps.

"...Okay. This is becoming less and less fun by the minute." Brandon said, becoming a bit annoyed.

Brandon continued to try, and fail, to get to and defeat Garland with minimal help. It got to the point that Brandon started screaming at the screen (and later into one of the couch's pillows), and he just simply  **refused**  to take a break and cool down for a few minutes. However, after nearly forty minutes into his folly, he got to Garland again, this time using an all-Warrior party, and after a grueling fight that ended with all but two of his party members biting it...

" _Garland has been terminated."_

"YES! _YEEEEEEEES!_ I DID IT! **I SON OF A BITCH DID IT!** " Brandon shouted excitedly as he made it across the bridge and watched the opening credits he could have easily skipped.

"Finally, I can continue in this stupid game... THERE IS A GOD-"

" _Five Greater Imps appeared!"_

" _AAAA Party Terminated."_

Brandon sat there with a look of shock and welling anger for one...two...three minutes...and then he finally moved again by tossing his controller to the floor.

"Alright, that's it! Time to resort to cheating..." Brandon said, angered at the supposed unfairness of the game. If he would just read between the lines he'd avoid a lot of stress and strife. He stood up and stormed over to his computer to pull up a video of someone playing the game.

As he watched the video, he did not pay attention to the screen of his game. It started to get messed up...as if there was a glitch in the system...

* * *

After after being abused for the better part of nearly two hours, encountering all sorts of problems in car and out, and generally coming under misery and pain that normally is reserved for Brandon's status as part-time Butt Monkey, Brian had finally made it to the airport. He figured that there was going to be exploding toilets or rigged metal detectors, but thankfully he wouldn't have to make it that far. Brian saw the jumbo jet and got out of his utterly wrecked car to go and greet his friends.

A little bit later, the passengers had gotten out and were making their way back towards their cars after they gathered everything up and left out of there. Brian finally saw a few familiar faces, ones he immediately recognized as long-time allies to him and Brandon. The purple anthropomorphic cat was the first to see Brian.

"Brian? Brian!" the cat yelled with joy as he ran towards Brian. The others followed suit.

"Welcome back, guys!" Brian said as he embraced the cat.

"It's good to be back, Cole," the unusually buff military man said.

"Glad to hear it, Walter," Brian said. "...Um, wasn't Xavier supposed to be here?" he asked.

"He was supposed to return with us...but he must have gotten lost on the way or-" the girl with the multi-colored hair said before being cut short by someone shouting "Did someone request my presence?"

A tall, spindly creature donning a lab coat had appeared behind Brian, having come out of the hovercar he owned.

"Ah, Xavier. Almost thought you had gotten lost on the way or something," Brian said, shaking Xavier's hand.

"It would be difficult to get lost with my kind of tech, my friend," Xavier replied.

"So, how have things been going, Brian? Did anything interesting of note happen while we were off-duty?" the girl said.

"Well...we found all of the Final Fantasy games in Keith's Game Replay yesterday. He didn't want to part with them obviously since they were part of his childhood previously." Brian paused for a moment. Things were about to get a little touchy. "And then...there was an...incident at the store."

The group looked concerned. "Brandon didn't do anything stupid this time, did he?" Walter said. He hadn't forgotten the last couple of times Brandon caused incidents.

"No, no! He didn't. However, Whiz Kid attacked us yesterday and tried to issue a small-scale assault on the store. Didn't work, but it was a close call." Brian said, recalling the events of yesterday.

"I was about to say. A shame I wasn't around to get you guys patched up, though." Xavier said.

"Don't worry. I won't feel it for about six more days. Still, it wasn't pretty. After it was all said and done, the nerds got arrested and sent back to the prison, and Keith was sent out to the hospital to check for any serious brain trauma, but not before he parted with his Final Fantasy games. Gave them to Brandon as thanks for defending his store," Brian recalled yet again.

"That's fine, but I'm betting ten bucks that Amityville Street is probably a ruined wreck right now." the cat said. "The Geek Squad can't have been at all subtle about raiding the store if you got badly injured."

"The police probably wouldn't have arrived if they hadn't been so over the top and with potential witnesses everywhere." Brian said. "But it certainly wasn't easy, Bob, I'll tell you that much."

"Yeah. Never is. Ah, well, what's done is done. Hope Keith gets well soon." Bob said. "By the way...where's Brandon at?"

"Yeah, if he missed us, how come he hasn't come to see us return?" Walter said indignantly.

"He didn't want to get up yet, and I didn't want to be late, so he's still at his mansion. Wonder what he's up to now..." Brian wondered.

* * *

Brandon had to admit, playing games without reading spoilers or walkthroughs online was not his forte. Sometimes he would get frustrated greatly and begin performing poorly, and as mentioned, he just would not give up even if his face was the color of the sun and his vocal cords had been given a good self-inflicted scraping. If a game had more than one path to it, Brandon would often never settle for 'second best' and usually shoot for the best ending each and every single time, even if the best ending had some of the most frustrating missions/quests/sidequests/etc to offer.

Either way, he just wanted to learn the basics of the game real quick and hopefully get the game over with. After watching a few videos and reading a few walkthroughs on how to get through the first part of the game, Brandon finally processed enough information to perform better.

"Alright. Let's get this show on the road and hopefully I'll beat Garland." Brandon said, walking back to his game. However, when he selected his characters yet again and named them the same names as he did several times, the game map turned up all garbly and warped.

"What the..." Brandon said. Had Keith given him a faulty cartridge or something? Was the game clogged with dust and needed to be blown on? Was the NES going out to pasture at last?

"Been playing this sucker for almost an hour, tops, and the game decides to go cuckoo on me  _now_?" Brandon muttered. "This can't be right..." he said as he stood up and turned the game off. He blew on it and made sure it wasn't dusty before doing the same with the console's slot itself and plugging the game back in. Again, the game was glitched up...except it may have gotten even  **worse**. Now enemy graphics were appearing on the overworld when they weren't supposed to be there, text and numbers dotted the landscape, and blinking seizure-inducing colors dominated some parts of the terrain.

His character's overowlod splte w4z EvEnwor$e l00k1n-ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERR ORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR

-File Not Found-

"...Um...okay, what's wrong with this picture? The glitching ain't warping reality."

VFNTRJRYMUTKR&%$&%$ ^$ %!^%*^(&(%& #^$ #%$!^%**IKJTNGRBWEVJYE

"Stop that."

DVDJYTJ%R*#&#!^$#&$^(%(%#^$#!%^TGBDFNFJYTRUTEWGRWQGFDFGH$%THJYRAWR #!% #&^**^%*#$&%

"Seriously, stop that. The fourth wall isn't literally broken, the readers are probably wondering what the hell's going on, and if you don't stop that, I'll-"

Okay, okay, you got me. Just wanted to get that out of my system.

Anyways, we now return to our plot already in progress. The game had been reduced to almost nothing but a mess of pixels, game sprites and text, and Brandon was left hopelessly confused. After a bit of aimless wandering around the messed up map, Brandon ended up waltzing right into the castle where Garland resided...and then the game went absolutely berserk. It turned into a snowstorm of indecipherable gibberish and flashing colors before the screen went completely blank, along with all of the lights in the house, leaving him in the dark.

Brandon sat there in silence for a few seconds at most. Then he said, "...Okay, when Keith gets back from the hospital, I've gotta tell him that I think his games are broken. Either that or they're possessed." Brandon said, growing more and more concerned.

A Black Mage sprite appeared on the television screen, just standing there with his hat obscuring his face. Brandon was slowly scooting up his couch, not sure what was about to happen.

The sprite turned its face up...and revealed his face. It was Brandon's face. And it was smiling at him.

"...Yep. Definitely possessed and in no way creepy at all." Brandon said, about to duck behind his couch.

That's when things started getting beyond his control. The TV began sparking and sputtering like crazy and the lights flickered as wind blew, even ignoring the fact that Brandon didn't have the windows open. Brandon dove behind his couch and braced for whatever may happen.

The wind and electricity in the air intensified and grew, tossing around loose stationery and shorting out any sort of other electricity-powered apparatus. Furniture started floating into the air as if the gravity were being warped too. The television continued the crazy whirlwind and o-zone smell tricks for the better part of several minutes before it all suddenly stopped. As quickly as it had started, the television's screen went dark, the wind died down, the electricity quit sparking around, and everything that was being hoist into the air came crashing down to the floor...and that included Brandon, much to his detriment.

It had been just a relatively mild bump to the floor, so Brandon hadn't been concerned about breaking anything on impact. He slowly got up from behind the couch, poking his head out from behind it and putting his television into view once again. He didn't dare go any higher though in case the television's little rampage wasn't done yet.

"Something tells me it ain't ov-"

Right in the middle of his sentence, the television sparked back to life, as its screen quickly turned into a swirling vortex of concentrated transportation energy. Brandon was looking into a sight he had become accustomed to after seeing it throughout his adventures, but always dreaded whenever it appeared.

He was looking into the all-seeing multi-dimensional temporal warp.

* * *

The group had questioned why Brian's car had become so utterly beaten up in the time they had been gone, and Brian would only give them the reply of "It's a long story". He didn't want to give a straight answer because it was humiliating enough as it was that he ended up falling prey to terribly bad luck, and it certainly wouldn't have helped his reputation as a professional hitman if anyone found out about that.

Fortunately for him (and his friends), the road back home was far less antagonistic. Nothing truly disastrous was happening, and the only true problem they encountered on the way back into town was the engine crapping out for a few minutes.

The car ride home had been pretty quiet, since nobody really had much to say. Brian spoke up and said "So...how was everyone's weekend off? Anything interesting happen?" he asked.

"Well, I was off training myself and newbies and hunting down terrorists. Same shit, different day. Never ends." Walter said.

"I think you need to take a load off, Walter. Years of military experience will stunt your growth in other places," Brian said.

"I know that. You forget that it's what I'm programmed to do." Walter replied.

"Right, but still, it probably wouldn't hurt to get away from that once in a while." Brian continued. He then shifted gears. "How about you Xavier? Anything good happen while you visited your family?" Brian asked Xavier.

"Aside from a science-based homecoming event that ended in disaster? Nothing much. It was fun for what it was worth, but it went downhill when Freddy detonated that butterscotch-filled volcano. Horrors." Xavier said.

"Ah. Sorry about that, Xave. But look on the bright side, at least you don't gotta see them again for a while," Brian said, reassuring Xavier. "And you, Bob?" Brian said to the cat.

"Oh, not too much. Just played a bit of Mario Party with a few friends over my break. Won almost every single match save a couple in Mario Party 8. I rue the day King Boo's Haunted Hideaway was  _ever_  conceived." Bob said.

"Alright, sounds simple enough." Brian said, turning his attention towards the girl. "And how about you, Akiyoko? Still communicating with your friends back on Worffton?" he asked her.

"Yeah. They've been doing surprisingly well since Juno's attempted invasion, all things considered," Aki said. Brian visibly tensed at the mention of the name 'Juno', but he decided to not say anything about it. "They say they'll eventually be able to visit Imaginationland once the ship production lines get back into order and enough material is gathered up to mass produce them again."

"That's good to hear. Glad Juno's attack hasn't affected their resolve." Brian said.

"Any chance you'll get this junker repaired?" Bob asked Brian.

"First off, Bob, it's a futuristic model, not a junker. Secondly, yes, I'm going to get this thing repaired once I get back home." Brian said. "I'm tempting fate, but I'm at least hoping nothing else goes wrong today." Brian said to himself.

Unfortunately, Brian's prediction was wrong. The general rule here is that if something goes wrong, it won't quit going wrong until it finally quits. It had been true in Brian's case, and in Brandon's case...well...

* * *

The television had completely turned into a full blown temporal warp between this world and whatever lay on the other end of it. It had picked up suction and was increasing quickly. Brandon had a track record for being notoriously stubborn when it came to being pulled in to the warps, so it wasn't any surprise that once he got a grip on something that was firmly nailed to the ground, he applied a death grip. It only worked so long though; temporal warps tended to equal Brandon in the stubbornness department and usually wouldn't close until he got sucked in.

"Sometimes I wonder if being a defender of the universe is all it's cracked up to be..." Brandon said as he hung onto a nearby wall for dear life. The temporal warp continued to apply suction, hoping to pry Brandon off of the wall he attached himself to, all the while sucking other loose objects towards it and bringing them through the warp.

The combined wear and tear of Brandon's tight grip and the warp's pull was quickly disintegrating the wall. The wall eventually gave way and caused Brandon to lose his grip. Brandon tried to frantically grab onto something to stop his progress towards the warp, but if there way anything it probably wasn't stuck to the ground like he hoped. He couldn't even dig his fingers into the floor or anything since the warp had gotten too strong by that point. Even his last desperate attempt of grabbing onto the frame of the screen didn't help. He finally was pulled in as his vision filled with the turquoise and aquamarine innards of the warp.

The warp finally closed, leaving the living room a complete and total wreck and in complete darkness, with nothing but the occasional flicker on the screen and the sunlight filtering through the windows.

* * *

- **20 Minutes Later** -

It had taken a while to get back to the mansion where Brandon resided, but Brian's junked car had finally pulled into the driveway. The car, having served Brian well throughout its abuse, fell apart almost as soon as it stopped in the driveway, eliciting grunts from some members of the party.

"Ugh...next time, I'm ordering first class..." Bob muttered, getting out of the car.

"Don't whine about it, Bob. You're not the one who had to sit in a train car for weeks on end." Walter said, following the rest of the group out of the car.

"Always the stand-off-ish one, eh Walter?" Xavier mused.

"Don't start with me, Doc," Walter said.

"Oh, hush. Your tenseness is highly unpleseant, you know. You used to be so much more nicer and not as prone to being defensive." Xavier said.

"Well at least I don't always have my goggles plastered to my face." Walter said.

"Says the steampunk android always dollied up in his combat gear24/7!" Xavier retorted.

"Geek!" "Boltbrain!" "Egghead!" "Rustbucket!"

The two volleyed insults at each other for a solid thirty seconds until Akiyoko stepped in to break it up. "How many times am I gonna have to play moderator to you two before you stop being so vitriolic?" Akiyoko said.

"But he's the one who started it!" Xavier whined.

"Childish words for a man of science and knowledge," she shot back. Xavier looked flustered in response. "Honestly, you two. For a couple of long-time friends, you sure do fight a lot."

"It's called tough love." Walter said.

"Right, and making a space pun using milk is called astronomy." Akiyoko once again retorted. "Now if you two boys are finished, we've got to see Brandon inside now," she added.

"...yes, ma'am." the doctor and the soldier said. They looked a bit embarrassed that they were being talked down by a girl, but it hadn't been the first time it happened, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

Brian had arrived at the door of the mansion and knocked on the door. "Hey, Brandon, we're back! If you're up already, come down and see your friends!" Brian called to Brandon.

No response. He knocked again.

"Brandon? Are you there?" Brian called a second time. Still no response.

"Here, let me try." Walter said as he pushed Brian aside. With little time, Walter knocked down the front door.

"Was that really necessary, Walter? The poor door wasn't even locked!" Bob said in the door's defense.

"It wasn't? Well, shit. My bad." Walter said. "Although the inside don't look a whole lot more better."

The group looked within the house, and saw the living room had been ransacked. Paper was everywhere. The lights had been blown out. Furniture had been upturned and tossed around haphazardly. The smell of o-zone and electricity was lingering in the air. And Brandon was nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell happened in here?" Brian wondered.

"We obviously wouldn't know. I don't think there's any minor villains we know that could cause the lights to blow out and send all of this everywhere." Akiyoko said. "Electro-Specter could have done this, but Xana's little peanut gallery of robots are gone too."

"Search the other rooms in the house. If he's not down here, he should be in his arcade in the basement or his bedroom or something..." Brian said, becoming increasingly concerned.

The five searched all around the expansive household, but all of their efforts turned out fruitless: Brandon was simply gone.

"We've looked all over the place, and Brandon is just...gone..." Bob said. "What about his housekeepers? Rupert, Daisy and Friday?" Bob added.

"They're on  _extended_  leave time. Which means they won't be back until next week," Walter remembered. He then muttered under his breath, "Lucky bastards..."

"Cut 'em some slack, soldier boy. They work a lot around the house." Akiyoko said. "We need to find Brandon...and fast. If the Villain's Alliance decided to turn up while we were gone and capture Brandon, we'd better bail him out as soon as possible," she concluded.

"But what about their disappearance? They haven't been active since March and nobody's seen hide nor hair of 'em! Why are we assuming this  _now_?" Xavier asked.

"What if on the off-chance they decided to come back? Would you assume then?" Walter replied. He then ran towards the door frame.

Xavier sighed. "I don't get why we're gonna go after ghosts..." Xavier said. Following the others, he decided to go along with them just in case they were gonna take some hits.

The group wasted no time in getting out the door frame and running off to find where their leader had disappeared off to. As Brian ran ahead of the group, he began to reflect and was noticing a theme going on here. "First Rob, then the Villain's Alliance, and now Brandon... Something must be going on here..." Brain thought. He figured they wouldn't find their rouges gallery too easily, but the had to try regardless.

Little did they know that this was to be a herald to one of their lengthiest adventures yet.

* * *

**END OF PROLOGUE**

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Okay, now we're out of the prologue. We're now just a hop, skip, and jump away from the first game in the series. Next up is the extremely short first intermission, so fasten your seatbelts and stay tuned.


	3. The Temporal Jumper's Guide to Surviving the Final Fantasy Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Forced into another adventure once again, Brandon starts his descent towards the world of the first game and receives help in the unlikeliest of forms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: See the first half of the prologue.

## CHAPTER INTERMISSION

### INTERMISSION #1: The Temporal Jumper's Guide to Surviving the Final Fantasy Universe

Space. The final frontier. It is very big, very much filled with loads and loads of stars and planets, and very, very quiet (except when it isn't).

It is also the place where temporal warps tended to spit out their passengers when they initially reached their destinations, which usually meant that somehow those who used these inter-dimensional tunnels gained Batman's acquired immunity to the nasty side-effects of explosive decompression.

This experience was not wholly unfamiliar to Brandon; he had to jump to other planets and timelines before in his previous adventures, but regardless of where he went, he often was concerned on the grounds that he wouldn't see his home for a while. The warp spat Brandon out far above the planet's atmosphere, sending him tumbling head over heels for a moment before getting control over his orientation. He looked around for a moment and realised where he was.

"Great. Stuck miles above an uncharted planet in orbit and absolutely no way to return to my world. And just when I was thinking my life was winding down for once..." Brandon muttered in annoyance.

Brandon shouldn't have been complaining. A couple of months off of his heroics was more than enough time to settle down for a bit and relax while he still could. Being forced into adventure, going in blind with no help at all wasn't at all an unusual occurrence at this point.

Fortunately for him, fortune seemed to be smiling down upon him as he drifted closer and closer to the planet. A small book just a bit bigger than the palm of his hand floated by him. It was almost completely white, with a black symbol in the shape of a crystal on its cover. Brandon reached out and tried to grab it, but missed it. He tried to move around to the best of his ability, awkwardly flailing about before nudging forward a bit. The book still was out of reach.

After a few bit attempts to try and fail to grasp the book, he eventually managed to get a hold of it. On its spine it read  _The Temporal Jumper's Guide to Surviving the Final Fantasy Universe_. There was no author name or anything. The title wasn't even on its front.

"What in the world kind of book is this...?" Brandon questioned. He opened the book to find out that the supposed pages weren't pages at all. They were just to give the false impression that it was a full book. What he found was a screen that displayed...something. As he opened it, the guide seemed to activate and began speaking.

* * *

_Initializing..._

_Temporal Jumper's Guide to Surviving the Final Fantasy Universe, The_

_v. 1.03_

> _Foreword_

_The Guide and What It Is_

The Temporal Jumper's Guide to Surviving the Final Fantasy Universe _is one of the world's most well known guides, and a truly remarkable knockoff of that other guide everyone knows about (though how remarkable a knockoff is depends on the person). This book is more well known than more known than_ The Tale of a Fleeting Mover, _better selling than_ One Hundred and One More Things To NEVER Do With a Bomb,  _and probably less controversial than Terrifus Holstead's trilogy of meta-expository criticism guides_ Where Square-Enix Went Wrong, Some of Motomu Toriyama's Even Bigger Mistakes After The Fact  _and_ Who is This Toriyama Idiot Anyway?

_The guide has become one of the most successful guides since the downfall of the Encyclopedia Fantisicus for a few reasons. The first is that unlike all of those other stuffy guides, this one can't be altered for a cheap joke or two. Another is that its a fair deal cheaper than most other guides these days. Finally, this guide has the words ' **DON'T PANIC** ' written on the back in large, bold and colorful lettering._

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Brandon looked on the back of the book really quick and saw that, indeed, the back cover of the book had the words on it, really colorful as well compared to the rest of the black and white void it was. He then turned the book back to its screen and saw that it was continuing its little spiel, except not on itself anymore.

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> _Introductions, Introductions..._

_The One That Started It All: Final Fantasy I_

_We all know the typical story of heroes. A band of people go off to destroy an all-powerful evil...and that's about it, really. This game never got a whole lot more complex than that, but it did have its share of twist and turns. The whole story behind this game is that back then, Square was sort of in the hole, and then-company president Hironobu Sakaguchi decided this would be his last game he'd ever create if this one failed. When it was released in December 1987...well, you know the rest._

_The game turned out to be such a big hit that more games would be created in its stead, but unlike certain molds of media following direct continuations of the same story, Final Fantasy almost never had any stories connect to each other through sequels, and were often self-contained stories that carved their own identities...well, most of the time, anyways. Regardless of how they were changed and what they did differently, the games all have their enormous share of fans...and an equally enormous amount of detractors._

_Of course, since the series was still in its infancy, various series staples such as the chocobos and limit breaks would not yet be conceptualized until much later in its life cycle. It nonetheless showed Square that Final Fantasy would be here to stay. Just to be clear, however, compared to future entries in the series, Final Fantasy is probably the closest it gets to its fantasy roots, so if you're expecting to see gigantic death machines born from a planet, an artifical planetoid city separated from the rest of society below it, or even floating continents, I'm afraid you're gonna have to get through this game first. And in this case, I suggest you'd brace for impact...this might sting a bit._

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Brandon looked a little bit unsettled that the guide directly adressed him, but looked up from the guide for a moment. Indeed, he was beginning to pick up velocity towards the planet. Brandon was beginning to feel the heat of planetary entry. It wouldn't be long before Brandon would start burning on the way in.

"Oh boy. Just like old times. I'd better be ready for a serious crash landing." Brandon said, pulling his goggles over his face. Soon, he started to really burn up, yet he never disintegrated as he fell. The landmasses began to become visible as he raced towards the surface below.

Finally, Brandon saw the ground. He soon landed with an extremely loud boom, leaving behind a good sized crater in his wake. The nearby town stirred from the impact, not sure what happened or who this person was.

An old man came by to inspect the crater. He wore royal robes and other sort of bits of jewelry. It was clear that this man was the king of...wherever Brandon landed. Reactions ranged primarily into the shock and confusion area, as bystanders gather around.

"Who in Cosmos' name is that?" "He just came from the sky!" "What an explosion!" "How did he survive that?!"

The king walked down into the crater with a couple of guards, the gathering crowd graciously stepping aside and letting him pass. He reached its center and examined the young man. There were some injuries on him, but aside from that, he still looked to be intact.

"By Cosmos...it's not a meteor, but a child! Or...at least he appears to be a child." the king said.

"Sir, what if he's one of them? The Warriors of Light?" one of his guards asked.

"Silence, Regal. We can't jump straight to conclusions just yet. Get him up and bring him inside. We must nurse him back to health," the king said.

Thus would begin the very first game of the series: Final Fantasy.

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**END OF INTERMISSION 1**

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Now it's time for the real meat of the story. Stay tuned for Chapter I.


End file.
